U.S. Pat. No. 4,852,468, issued Aug. 1, 1989, illustrates a ventilated work station for sculpting fingernails. The work station includes a desk-like arrangement defining a platform which supports and is fixedly connected to a transparent hood. An exhaust fan is connected with ducts leading to the hood and slots for producing a low pressure in the area confined by the hood to convey fumes away from the work area.
The arrangement of U.S. Pat. No. 4,852,468 is of unitary construction; the hood and platform defining means are permanently installed and affixed together along with the extensive duct work and related equipment which is used to convey fume-laden air from the work site to a remote location.
Quite obviously, such an approach is characterized by relatively high expense both with regard to the equipment itself and its installation. Furthermore, such a device is relatively energy intensive in that high capacity fan must be employed to convey air to the remote location.
Another deficiency in this prior art arrangement is that the entire area or interior of the hood is evacuated generally uniformly by the fan means. Open bottles of manicure chemicals are the source of the most concentrated and potentially harmful fumes. The device of U.S. Pat. No. 4,852,468 does not make efficient use of the air currents within the hood to concentrate them in the vicinity of the containers during vapor removal.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,647,295, issued Mar. 3, 1987, is directed to a work top air cleaner which includes a passageway formed in the work top through which air is removed and directed to a filter box. Such an arrangement does not include a hood to protect the manicurist and customer nor does the device of U.S. Pat. No. 4,647,295 consider the problem of eliminating noxious fumes or vapors from open containers. It is obvious that this prior art approach would not be effective for such purpose.
A search relating to this invention also located the following existing patents: U.S. Pat. No. 2,147,314, issued Feb. 14, 1939, U.S. Pat. No. 4,553,992, issued November 1985, U.S. Pat. No. 4,179,984, issued Dec. 25, 1979, U.S. Pat. No. 4,252,054, issued Feb. 24, 1981, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,967,775, issued Nov. 6, 1990. None of these patents disclose an arrangement of the type set forth in the present application. Among other things, there is no showing of the portable arrangement which will be described in detail below which operates to efficiently and cheaply control noxious emissions at a manicurist's work station, particularly those emissions which are in their most concentrated and potentially harmful form at the locations of containers utilized by the manicurist during the course of his or her work.